Calling it one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century, President Barack Obama has observed the 95th anniversary of Armenian Remembrance Day but avoided calling the Ottoman era killing of 1.5 million Armenians genocide.

The president did, however, refer to “Meds Yeghern” or “Great Catastrophe,” which is the Armenian term for what befell the nation in 1915, the same way “Shoah” is used by some Jewish people to refer to the Holocaust, one scholar noted.

“On this solemn day of remembrance, we pause to recall that 95 years ago one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century began,” Obama said in a statement Saturday. “In that dark moment of history, 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.

“I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view of that history has not changed,” he said. “It is in all of our interest to see the achievement a full, frank and just acknowledgment of the facts.”

“The Meds Yeghern is a devastating chapter in the history of the Armenian people, and we must keep its memory alive in honor of those who were murdered and so that we do not repeat the grave mistakes of the past,” Obama said.

Obama’s use of Meds Yeghern “is an elegant dodge to avoid using the ‘G-word,’ but the substance of what he states about what happened gives no comfort to those who cling to the Turkish official version,” said Harvard University’s Andras Riedlmayer.

Still, the Armenian American lobby group, the Armenian National Committee of America, rapped Obama in a statement for “disgraceful capitulation to Turkey’s threats” and for “offering euphemisms and evasive terminology to characterize this crime against humanity.”